TYROL, a crown land of Austria, lies between 45' 40' and 47' 44' N. lat., 9' 32' and 12' 55'F long. On the west of Tyrol there is a portion of Austrian Italy and of Switzerland, from which it is divided by an uninterrupted chain of high mountains [Swerzent.sxn), and the Rhine. On the north of the Tyrol is Bavaria ; on this frontier also there are high mountains. East of the Tyrol are the Austrian provinces of Austria sod Illyria, from which it is chiefly divided by the coot!. nuoua ranges which separate the river basins of the Seize and Dran from those of the Inn and Eisach ; only a email portion of the basin of the Drau Is included In the Tyrol. The mountains which on the south separate the Tyrol from Italy are frequently interrupted by streams, which escape from the mountain region of the Tyrol by very narrow valleys.
The crownland Includes the Vorarlberg, and is divided into 4 circles, 76 arrondissements, and 1093 communes. Tho area and population of the circles are as follows, according to official returns published in Vienna in 1854 :— The Tyrol is much more mountainous than Switzerland. One-third of Switzerland is an undulating or hilly plain, but the Tyrol, with the exception of a comparatively small tract, is covered with high moun tain masses, on which a great number of summits rise above the snow-line and are surrounded by extensive glaciers. Level tracts, admitting of cultivation with the plough, are found only on the banks of the rivers, where they sometiince attain a width of a mile, and in a few places more, but they are usually not more than half a mile wide. All these tracts taken together do not cover one-tenth of the surface of the country; nine-tenths are occupied by the higher and lower mountain masses of the Alps.
The Tyrolese Alps form the eastern portion of the Central or Rheitian Alps. The most elevated parts lie along the western borne (Ley-line, south of the Inn ltiver, and in the greet chain which runs through the country from west to east, dividing the waters which run northward to the Danube, from those that flow southward to the Adriatic!, or outward to the river Drau. The western chain runs uninterruptedly from the Lake of Idro to the Ortler Spitz. South of 46' 8' N. lat. it probably doee not exceed 7000 feet above the sea-level.
But near 46' 8 N. lat. it rises In Monte Adamello to more than 11,000 feet, and from this summit to the Ortler Spitz (46° 30' N.lat.); hardly any portion of the range is free from snow even in the latter part of the summer. The general elevation of this range probably exceeds 9000 feet above the sea. The Ortler Spitz Is the highest summit of the Ithtstian Alps, being 12,855 feet above the sea. it is surrounded by other summits, and Is always covered with snow.
The deep and wide valley of the Upper Etech (Adige), called Vinthehgeu, separates the mountain messes of the Ortler Spitz from the mountain range which traverses the Tyrol from west to east. This range is divided Into two high and elevated mountain masses, which are divided by a largo and wide depression, which occurs near 11° 30' E. long., and through which the road over the Brenner passes from Germany to Italy. The mountain region west of this road consists of two extensive and very elevated mountain masses, which are connected by a high ridge. The western mountain mass is called the mountains of the l'lstey Rog!, or of the Great Oetzthaler Ferrier, and the eastern la named the mountains of the Winaeher Ferrer. The mountains of the Matey Kogl occupy nearly the whole country between the Inn and the Acheu, a space of nearly 30 miles from south to north, and 20 miles from west to east. A considerable portion of this tract is always covered with snow, from which rise numerous pinnacles, among which the highest are Mount Gehatsch, 12,276 feet; the Similaun Spitz, 11,869 feet ; arid the Great Oetzthaler Feruer, 10,434 feet above the sea-level. This is one of the moat broken portions of the Alps, and the snowy masses are furrowed by only two deep and very narrow valleys. The mountains of the Winaeher Ferrier, or the eastern part of the region, are connected with those of the Platey Kiigl by a high and narrow ridge, which only in a few places is free from snow in summer. The Winacher Mountains also rise above the snow-line, but the mass is less extensive than that of the Platey Kiigl. Several summits rise above 10,000 feet, among which are the Kitzkamp, the Wivacher Ferncr, the Winter Stuben, and the Bock Kfigl.